


The Aftermath of Pain and Torment

by Multifandom_damnation



Series: The Storm that comforts the Sea [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Blood Magic, Comforting Jason Grace, Dark Percy, Dreams and Nightmares, Gen, Heart-to-Heart, Jason Grace & Percy Jackson Bromance, Loss of Control, Minor Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Panic Attacks, Post-Tartarus (Percy Jackson), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Trauma, annabeth isn't actually in it but she's mentioned quiet a lot, percy's powers changed and enhanced since tartarus, the summary makes it sound more intense than it really is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-28 09:58:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17180795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Multifandom_damnation/pseuds/Multifandom_damnation
Summary: Jason knows that since returning from the boiling depths of Tartarus and surviving the war with Gaia that Percy and Annabeth aren't the same people he met all that time ago. Nightmares and panic attacks and the fear of separation from each other are the easiest to spot. Sometimes Percy skips meals because he forgets or just can't bear to stomach anything. Sometimes Annabeth stays awake through the night, not realizing the time or simply because she doesn't want to live through the nightmares of the pit again.Jason knows because he sees it in their eyes and their tiny gestures and the hardened, darkened looks to their faces. More scars, more violent, more headfast. Annabeth walks with a limp in one foot and sometimes Percy's hands shake so bad he can hardly hold his sword.When Annabeth's tragic retelling of their confrontation with the goddess of misery turns into Jason hunting a nightmare-stricken Percy through the camp in a desperate attempt to find him before things can get worse, Jason somehow convinces Percy to tell him what's bothering him the most and Jason certainly gets more than he bargained for.





	The Aftermath of Pain and Torment

**Author's Note:**

> The summary makes it sound more dramatic and intense than it is so sorry for the deception. It's basically just Jason comforting Percy after another nightmare and Percy showing off new powers he got from Tartarus. (mostly because I was writing another fic before this one and needed a reason to make Percy super powerful and wrote this instead). I know this is a little different from the last one, particularly how much Jason knows about what happened with Ahklys but I feel like it makes sense because there is no specified time. Hope you like it, I missed writing PJO. I miss my broken angry children. x

The early morning sunrise was glinting red and orange across the ocean when Jason found him, pacing back and forth on the white sand with his hands running anxiously through his sleep-tousled hair. He landed beside him and to Jason’s surprise, Percy jumped at his approach, dropping one hand to his side and the other to his shirt pocket before he relaxed and dropped that hand to fist in his pyjama pants as well. “Hi…” he began, a little breathlessly, avoiding Jason’s gaze.

Sticking his hands in his pockets nonchalantly, Jason began to slowly walk back and forth up the beach, making a wide circle around Percy as not to spook him. “You’re out here pretty early.” He observed quietly. “I know being near water energizes you, but I don’t remember you ever voluntarily getting up this early, even if it is for a mid-morning swim.”

Percy’s gulp was audible from across the beach. His reply was shaky. “How did you know I was out here?”

“Annabeth came and got me.” Jason shrugged and he heard Percy’s sharp intake of breath. “Told me she woke up and you were missing. I’ve been flying about all over camp looking for you.”

Digging his bare toes into the grit under his feet, Percy rocked back and forth on his heels. Jason gave him a moment to think, admiring the crashing waves against the shore in the silence between them, before Percy eventually spoke. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare her… or make you do that.”

“No big man,” Jason waved it off and paused in his repetitive pacing to study Percy with poorly hidden worry in his eyes. Percy's eyes were sunken into his skull with dark half-moons beneath them, his skin pale and clammy in a way that Jason didn’t think it was really from swimming and more from sweating through the night. “Do you want to talk about it? You don’t seem to have slept well.”

Running a shaking hand through his hair, Percy sighed through his nose. “If I’m being honest man, not really.”

“Nightmares?”

“Yeah.” Percy pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Yeah, pretty bad ones too. I try not to tell Annabeth, I know she worries enough already, but sometimes she sees things I couldn’t hide or she notices tiny details I didn’t know were even there. It’s getting really difficult to keep them a secret, especially now that she basically lives in my cabin.”

Humming, Jason kicked at the sand and watched as it sailed through the air to scatter across the pristine waters, tiny pools radiating out from their impacts. “Well, if you’d like, I’m always here to lend an ear. Maybe if you talked about it a little it may be easier to be around Annabeth?”

“Maybe.” Percy bit his bottom lip and Jason frowned at the nervous gesture he was very unused to. “Honestly, I’m surprised Annabeth hasn’t talked to you about it already. You guys seem to have gotten pretty close since we came back to camp.”

Jason immediately held his hands up in defence to refute Percy’s statement. “Hold up man, how many times have I told you not to go straight to the worst case sinario?” Percy shrugged in a _‘can you blame me’_ gesture. “She just needed someone to talk to after the war with Gaia and coming back from Tartarus. She thinks it’s better to talk to someone who hasn’t had shared experiences.”

“I know.” Percy gazed out over the sea, lost deep in thought. “I get it. Sometimes it’s hard though, you know? We spend so much time basically attached to the hip and every time I try and talk about Tartarus she pushes me away and goes looking for someone else. It’s just difficult.” 

“Maybe you’d feel better if you had someone to talk to as well?” Jason suggested. “Frank or Chiron or Sally. Hells, maybe even Nico? Maybe having a conversation would be good for both of you- help each other through it.”

“Nah, Nico’s been talking to Will about it. I’m glad too because Nico’s nightmares would be scarier than mine.” Percy shook his head, placing one hand on the back of his neck in a failed attempt to act casual. “And honestly, I love my mum, but I don’t want to worry her any more than she already is. I’ve actually been speaking to Leo, believe it or not.”

Jason spluttered in surprise. “ _Leo_?”

Grinning slightly, Percy winked at Jason. “I mean, they’re not real conversations but sometimes I can find him while he's hips deep in Festus and I can talk to him about my dreams but he’s only half listening. It’s a win-win really. He gets the company for a few hours and someone to pass him tools while I get to talk about things that have been bothering me to get them off my chest and maybe get some good advice every now and again.” He pointed at Jason’s startled face. “I know. I didn’t think he was capable of it either but sometimes he gives really good advice that I end up following.”

Laughing, Jason reached over and gently pushed Percy in the shoulder good-naturedly. Though he wasn’t as sickly and thin as Nico was once he had escaped Tartarus and the bronze jar, Percy was still alarmingly easy to unbalance. Maybe it was the lack of food or lack of sleep or just general lack of happiness in Percy’s life since the war with Gaia, but he was definitely different than when they were flying towards Greece on the Argo II. “That’s great man. I’m glad you’re not just bottling it all up.”

Percy’s smile fell abruptly from his lips. “I’m still surprised you don’t know. It was the only thing I’ve ever done that actually scared her and is still giving her bad dreams.”

Grin wavering, Jason reached out and gently grabbed Percy’s cold and shaking hands in his own. “Come and sit with me by the water.” He urged, slowly towing Percy over to the riverbank and sat down cross-legged on the floor, forcing Percy to sit down beside him. His eyes had glazed over slightly and he stared blankly at the water. Jason shook his arm to get his attention and Percy looked up and over at him, blinking. “Talk to me. About the nightmares. About Tartarus. About anything and everything that’s been on your mind these past months that you’re too scared to talk about with Annabeth.”

There was silence between them for a moment, nothing but the waves lapping gently against the sandy beach. Percy ran a hand roughly down his face before he spoke. “There was a goddess down there, the goddess of misery. Akhlys.” Percy said her name like a curse and a prayer, full of hate and malice but quiet fear as well. The name sounded familiar to Jason, but not the story, because each time Annabeth came close to telling the tale, her hands would shake and her eyes would mist and her voice would tremble so thickly with burning unshed tears that the words wouldn’t make it out from her throat. “We needed to pass her to get through Nyx’s Mansion, but we needed her to turn us into… ghost things. Not really dead but not entirely solid.”

Now that Percy was retelling it, Jason did remember the lead up, how Bob had been forced to abandon them, how they were betrayed by the goddess, how the fear had begun to set it- he was just unsure regarding what had Annabeth, brave and unmoveable Annabeth Chase, so afraid to speak about. “Right, I think I remember you guys mentioning her. Something about poison, right?”

“Yeah,” Percy whispered, voice shaking and Jason glanced over to see Percy staring down at his lap, his fingers slowly curling into fists. “Poison. She was all about poison, and venom and misery and pain and-” he paused to take a deep, calming breath, which gave Jason a selfish twinge of hope. “There was something really wrong about that place man. Not just the whole hell for demons and monsters that ate demigods for breakfast and all that but that place… it messed with me, I think. When she was going to hurt Annabeth, something inside of me… snapped. Shattered, like glass.”

Jason’s worry began anew, a sparking, burning feeling in his chest that travelled through his body like lightning, and he sat up straighter. “That doesn’t sound good. Does it hurt?”

Shaking his head, Percy absentmindedly reached a hand up to rub his palm against his stomach, as if remembering the place his control had snapped. “No, it didn’t hurt. It felt… good, honestly. Not like, a fantastic feeling when it happened, but suddenly I could do so much more than I have ever been able to and I… loved it.”

“Percy…” Jason muttered, gripping Percy’s hand in his tighter in anticipation. “What did you do?” Because it had to be something big, something horrible and dangerous beyond belief to have Annabeth so frightened of even speaking of it and Percy, kind and gentle Percy, to look wistfully into the distance at the memory of such unbelievable power. Maybe even unstoppable.

It took Percy a moment to respond, his mind and still lost in the past, the deep dark pit filled with horror and torment and too much of everything all at once. “My father is the god of the sea and because of this, I can control his realm.” He paused, as if dredging up the words from the abys itself. “I quickly learned that it also extended not just the sea, but to water.” He met Jason’s eyes and the other boy held back a gasp at the look in Percy’s eyes- blank but dark with clouds of painful memories. “And then in Tartarus, I realized it also worked with… liquids. All liquids. Not just water.”

Jason, probably wisely, kept his mouth carefully shut as Percy dropped his eyes to the sand where a thin stream of water was currently darkening the sand in intricate patterns as Percy’s fingers twitched as he spoke. “I didn’t mean to scare her,” Percy mumbled, placing his hand in the way of the stream of water, causing it to run over his knuckles to before it continued on its path. Jason had the strange feeling that half of Percy’s concentration was on the conversation and the other half on controlling the stream of water. “I didn’t mean to enjoy it as much as I did.”

“Tell me what happened Percy.” Jason made his voice stern in a desperate attempt to regain some control on the direction of the discussion, a little frightened of Percy and the story he was weaving. “You’re talking in circles. We’re not going to get anywhere if you don’t tell me what’s going on.”

Percy’s voice was carefully emotionless, a blank slate, his mental walls slamming up to protect him from Jason’s piercing gaze and his memories of the pit. Maybe he was even protecting himself from how he thought Jason would react, though Jason had no idea why. “Akhlys was a crying, snotty mess when she tried to kill us, so when it snapped, I choked her with the liquids from her own body.” Percy’s words were blandly even. Jason couldn’t stop his gasp of surprise this time and he caught the diminutive flinch from Percy. “I made her poison surround her and burn through her body. I tried to kill her with her own flowers. And I loved it. I was so entranced by the power I never wanted it to stop. I would have been happy to have that control forever.”

“Then why did you? Stop, I mean.” Jason was having trouble making eye contact with Percy, but he couldn’t understand why. The new information shouldn’t make him change his mind about his friend- he was still the same Percy who drowned his pancakes in syrup and made the toilets explode when he was nervous and stocked up on peanut butter for when his brother came by. Regardless of the reasons, Jason had begun to slightly fear his friend and not just for the regular reasons.

“Annabeth,” Percy said. “She told me to stop. It was the only thing I heard. She… she told me I was scaring her, and when I came out of it, she made me promise to never do anything like it again.”

“Right,” Jason breathed out, trying to bring about some sort of calm in the rocky situation, despite his body feeling as though he’d been hit by one of his father’s lightning bolts. Percy still wasn’t looking at him, his head was down as if ready to receive a death sentence from a judge, and that was the worst thing for Jason- that his friend considered him judge, jury and executioner after confiding in him a long-kept secret. “Right, ok. Wow Perce, that’s a lot. Why didn’t you say anything?” Percy shrugged. “Does Annabeth know you felt like that?” He shook his head. Jason pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m guessing your nightmares about Akhyls and what you did?”

“Mostly.” Percy agreed reluctantly and continued with Jason’s subtle prompting. “Sometimes it changes. Sometimes I don’t stop when she asks and I end up killing Akhyls. Sometimes Annabeth runs away from me in fear and I never find her again. Sometimes I decide not to leave Tartarus because I become one of the monsters that reside there. Sometimes I do come back and none of you trusts me again.”

Sighing, Jason rubbed his hand up and down Percy’s arm in a desperate attempt at reassurance that didn’t seem to be working.  “That sounds terrible. On the plus side, those increased dark powers seem to have disappeared once you left Tartarus so we don’t need to worry about that anymore, right?” Percy didn’t reply and instead tilted his head the opposite direction, effectively looking a small babbling brook instead of at Jason. “ _Right_ Percy?”

Exhaling heavily though his nose, Percy still refused to look at him. “I honestly wish that were true.” Something dense dropped from Jason’s chest down to his toes. He suspected that it may have been his heart. “You know how my dad is also the god of earthquakes? I once made a volcano explode by causing one.” He shrugged like it was no big deal but Jason was still floundering with the new information. “Last night, when I had the nightmare… I think I caused one. In my sleep.”

Now that he thought about it, Jason did recall waking momentarily to his cabin shaking and a poorly-aborted shout of terror in the early hours of the morning just before he had rolled over and fallen back into a blissful sleep. “I wondered what that was. Does it happen often?”

“Not too often,” Percy said and Jason couldn’t ignore the hidden relief behind his words.

“Well, is there anything else that’s been happening?” Jason urged and Percy bit his lip before abruptly standing up and gesturing for Jason to do the same before shoving his hands into his pants pockets and trudging slowly deeper into the woods, putting the sea he always felt so comfortable with behind him. Hurriedly, Jason scrambled upright and rushed after him. “Where are we going? What are you looking for?”

“Give it time,” Percy sounded entirely unconcerned as he weaved through the trees, but his voice had a slight, sharp twinge that Jason couldn’t identify. “You wanted to know what else changed since we came back. I’m going to show you, but you have to swear on the River Styx that you won’t tell anyone, especially not Annabeth, Chiron or my mum.”

“Percy…”

“You have to swear or I won’t show you what’s happening.”

Reluctantly, Jason gave in and nodded. “Yeah, sure Perce. I swear on the Styx.” Above them, ominous thunder rumbled as if Zeus was laughing at Jason’s possibly stupid decision. Before he could ask what they were doing, there was a growl from somewhere deep in the darkness and a beast with fur coating its body and glowing yellow eyes prowled through the trees, it’s large, barbed tail waving lazily above its head. Its name escaped Jason’s mind as he quickly drew his sword with a gasp. A quick glance at Percy told him that the son of Poseidon was unconcerned, his hands still in his pockets, frowning at the creature. “Percy, what the hells? We have to get out of here!” He reached out and grabbed his friend's arm but Percy shook him off. “What…?”

“Hold on a second,” Percy muttered as he put one arm across Jason’s chest, pushing him back before taking a couple steps closer to the creature who had brought its breast low to the ground, snarling and drooling onto the dirt. Where the spittle stuck the ground, it sizzled and smoked. “I’ve got this.”

The beast hissed as Percy came closer, one hand out of his pocket and his head tilted in consideration. Despite him being the legendary Percy Jackson who had survived the two most influential prophecies that led to the two largest and most devastating wars and escaped Tartarus alive and with his sanity, Jason thought he was taking the threat a little too lightly. “Percy…” He warned as the beast raised its tail higher. Percy didn’t answer.

It was obvious to Jason by now that this _thing_ , whatever it was the Percy needed to show him, involved the beast and Jason’s silent cooperation and dedication to sitting back to let Percy control the situation, but Jason still had a firm grip on his sword and was prepared to summon a lightning bolt on the beast if things got out of hand. He took a couple steps back as Percy waved him away over his shoulder.

As the beast growled once more and thrust itself up in preparation to pounce on Percy, Jason shouted out a final startled warning for his friend before everything changed in a way that Jason could never have expected.

An acidic green glow shone from Percy’s face as he thrust out his arm and with a cacophonous, wordless roar and the creature yelped in pain, rolling onto its back on the ground as blood poured from its lips and its nose and it’s tear ducts before its eyes turned to mush and blood flowed from its now-empty eye sockets. Jason took steps backward in shock as the inside of the monster seemed to deflate as if its insides had turned entirely to liquid within its body. Slowly, the beast stopped its rolling and no sound escaped its mouth.

Clenching his hand into a fist, Percy pulled it away from the beast and a sickening wet sound seemed to echo in Jason’s ears as the beast exploded and the thing turned into golden dust. When Jason looked back, a large flowing mass of congealing blood floated around Percy’s fist. Percy glanced distastefully at it before flicking his wrist and dropping the blood back down to the ground where it soaked into the soil. When he turned back to Jason, his eyes were glowing a venous green but after a few rapid blinks, his eyes returned to normal.

Both men waited for the other to speak first, but for a long moment, there was nothing. Just Percy staring expectantly and worriedly at Jason and Jason staring in shock-horror at the golden dust being scattered away by the wind. Eventually, Jason glanced up at Percy, leaning against a tree. “What the fuck…”

“You swore on the River Styx to keep this between us, Jason,” Percy warned as he pushed away from the trunk and made his way towards Jason, who used all the willpower he had not wo flinch away. “It’s crazy, isn’t it? I try not to think about it much, but sometimes I come out here when nobody can hear me and just scream. Whatever dies, dies. The beasts won’t be missed by anyone.”

Jason tried to get his breathing under control and regain the steady rise and fall of his chest. “You’ve kept this a _secret_ since you came back? Percy, this is nuts. You have to tell someone. Will’s been helping Nico, maybe he could help you out as well?”

Shaking his head, Percy hand his fingers through his hair as paused in front of Jason. “I knew you would react like this.” He muttered. Louder, her said “Let’s just keep this between us. I mostly have it under control.”

“ _Mostly_?” Jason was ashamed at how his voice came out as a squeak, but that word hit something inside him that he desperately wanted to ignore.

“I mean, I’m not in any danger at killing anyone on accident, but sometimes when I come out here and I’m alone I lose it a little.”

“And you come out here often?”

Percy shrugged. “During my breaks between camp activities and training. I needed somewhere to let out stress where nobody would see me or stop me so this became the best place for me to… disappear for a little while.”

As Percy made to walk off, Jason reached an arm out and grabbed Percy’s shoulder before he could wander too far away. “Perce, I know you’re laughing this off, but this is _messed up._ You can control _blood?_ That isn’t an easy thing to understand. What else can you control other than just water?”

A moment thought was given before Percy looked at the treetops, a small smile pulling at the edges of his lips. “Soft drink. Sparkling water. Mineral water. Flavoured water.”

Jason closed his eyes. “Percy, I’m being serious. I know that you pulled liquid out of my lungs. Thalia has told me about that time you went looking for Hades’ sword in the Underworld and you controlled the River Lethe like Moses and the flood. Annabeth told me that when you were falling into Tartarus you used one of the rivers to cushion your fall. If that’s what you could do before going through Tartarus, what could you be capable of now?”

Frowning, Percy sighed. “I don’t know. I haven’t really tested it.”

“Well maybe, when we have the time, we can get a hold of Nico and head down to the Underworld to see what else you can do.” Jason said calmly in a desperate attempt to understand, and to make Percy realize that he wasn’t being hostile or judge-like in any way.

It must have worked because ever so slowly Percy’s bunched shoulders lowered from around his ears and his entire tense body relaxed into something similar to the man Jason knew. “Yeah,” Percy’s voice was quiet and subdued as if all the fight had been drained out of him. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”

Jason placed his arm on Percy’s shoulder and was relieved that he didn’t pull away. “Let’s get back to camp. The others are probably starting to get worried about us.”

“Yeah,” Percy rubbed a heavy hand down his face and Jason realized not for the first time how tired he looked. “OK, let’s go back. I don’t want Annabeth to yell at me again for missing meals.”

Smiling thinly, Jason patted Percy on the back with his other hand before he started walking. “We wouldn’t want that. Let’s get you back and you can have all the pancakes and blue smoothies that you want.”

Wordlessly, Percy let Jason tow him back to the safety of Camp Half-Blood with worry for his friend pounding in Jason’s head like blood in his ears, the fear for what the future would bring and a quick, silent prayer to his father that his friend would be well looked after through the aftermath of whatever the hell Tartarus did to him.


End file.
